GOP Candidate Asked To Leave For Pointing Out Reporter’s Disrespect

Republican candidates for the US Senate in Oregon met with staff from the newspaper Willamette Week, apparently each was seeking the paper’s endorsement. One candidate probably won’t receive it for pointing out the bias and disrespect displayed by one of the reporters.

Candidate Joe Rae Perkins was answering a question and the reporter wrote “Blah, blah, blah” on his notepad. Candidate Mark Callahan saw what he wrote and called him out for it, saying Ms. Perkins deserved some respect. Instead of apologizing the reporter asked Callahan a question about climate change. Callahan responded that it’s a myth, and then the reporter asked him about the Easter Bunny. Callahan was not amused.

“Are these really the questions that I was called here to answer?” a stunned Callahan asked. “I called you out for putting ‘blah blah blah’ on your notepad and now you’re asking me questions like this? Really? Really? Are we talking about this now? How about you ask a very serious and respectful question instead of asking a little childish question?”

That’s when the paper’s editor told Callahan that he had two strikes against him and one more he would be asked to leave. Within moments Callahan was gone and the other candidates continued with the forum. If you ask me they all should have walked out.

CALLAHAN: “You want to talk about disrespect? I see what you’re writing down there. You just wrote down ‘blah blah blah, blah blah blah’ for everything that Jo Rae said. Joe Rae is a respectable woman. Why are you not respecting her by writing ‘blah blah blah blah blah’ on your notepad?”
UNKNOWN: “Mark, we’re going to move on. I’m going to ask a question and if you answer respectfully we might be willing to give –”
CALLAHAN: “You have to give respect to get respect. Right now, on that side of the table, you’re not giving very much respect . We’re wasting my time here.”
UNKNOWN: “Are we wasting our time by doing this?”
CALLAHAN: “I just see what your colleague here is putting down on his notepad, he put down ‘blah blah blah blah blah’ when Jo Rae was giving a very detailed and descript answer.”
UNKNOWN: “Mark, here’s my question: Climate change; do you believe it is a myth or a reality?”
CALLAHAN: “It’s a myth.”
JAQUISS: “It is?”
CALLAHAN: “Yes.”
JAQUISS: “Where are you on the Easter bunny?”
CALLAHAN: “What’s that?”
JAQUISS: “I said where are you on the Easter bunny?”
UNKOWN: “I’ll stick to the questions –”
CALLAHAN: “Are these really the questions I was called here to answer? to [inaudible]? Really?”
UNKOWN: “Representative –”
CALLAHAN: “I called you out for putting ‘blah blah blah blah’ on your notepad and now you’re asking me questions like this? Really? Really? Are we talking about this now?”
UNKOWN: “Let’s move on.”
CALLAHAN: “All right, how about you ask a very serious and respectful question instead of asking silly childish questions?”
UNKOWN: “Mark, I just asked you if climate change was a myth or a reality.”
CALLAHAN: “And I answered your question.”
UNKOWN: “Can I now move on and get the response from somebody else, and if you’re not going to let me I’m going to ask you to leave, OK? That’s two strikes.”
CALLAHAN: “Who do you think you are?”
UNKOWN: “OK, you may leave now. Go ahead. You’re done here. This is neither a fair nor balanced meeting. This is a meeting for us to
CALLAHAN: “I know it’s a meeting being asked by disrespectful thin-skinned liberals like yourself.
UNKOWN 2: “There’s the door.”
CALLAHAN: “I have better things to do with my time.”
UNKNOWN: “You clearly do. Can you answer the question about climate change.”
UNKNOWN 3: “Yes. I actually view both sides of the climate debate as being incredible. You know, the computer models are only as good as what’s put into them.”

I saw this yesterday and was outraged at the editor’s extreme bias. I bet after he thought about it, Calahan would not have allowed himself to be summarily dismissed by this little frog. he was actually sticking up for the lady candidate for US Senate. He should have sat there and continued to berate the interrogator until they were forced to cancel the interview. I would love to have seen them try to physically remove him while the camera was rolling. By the way, the little wiggy reporter is identified as Nigel Jaquiss. The editor in chief, Mark Zusman of this liberal rag the “Willamette Week” was leading the interviews and he aided and abetted Mr. Wiggy

“Jaquiss, the same reporter busted just moments before, then asked him what is views are on the “Easter bunny,” an obvious attempt to mock the candidate.

“Are these really the questions that I was called here to answer?” a stunned Callahan asked. “I called you out for putting ‘blah blah blah’ on your notepad and now you’re asking me questions like this? Really? Really? Are we talking about this now? How about you ask a very serious and respectful question instead of asking a little childish question?”

No apology was issued on behalf of the reporter. Instead, Editor-in-Chief Mark Zusman warned Callahan that he would be asked to leave if he interrupted again.”

Jo Rae Perkins is the best candidate for the job, in my opinion. She is honest, she is in no one’s pocket. She was not there in person but participating via telephone call; she stated that she would have hung up during this incident with Willamette Week, except that she could not
always hear what was going on.

Good for Mark for seeing through that and standing up for what was right. Those people sound like a huge joke and if those are the kinds of questions they want to ask then I wholeheartedly agree with Callahan. These people have no right to be acting this way, and then they turn around and say HE’S got 2 strikes? Give me a break. It doesn’t get any more pathetic than this. JAQUISS sounds like a pretentious twat who needs his face rearranged.